I have two questions about a story idea: would running a small scale, black market laundromat be possible between 2002 and 2009 and is writing a romance a bad idea if I don't have a lot of relationship experience and am almost a hermit?

The absence of smartphone ubiquity was my reason for choosing an unlicensed laundromat for a plot point.

"Write what you konw" is common advice, but I don't want to completely scrap my romance idea because I'd rather be drawing or playing Ape Escape than using Tinder.